Japanese Traditional Culture

Chu-chan's “Go Straight Towards Japanese Traditional Culture” 【PART1】 The Meaning of Learning Japanese Traditional Culture

Kondo Chuji = Director of Japan Traditional Culture Testing Association

To know traditional Japanese culture is to know Japan. For Japanese people, knowing Japan means knowing their strengths when they go out into the world. For foreigners too, I think it is very meaningful in today's world to learn about the fundamental sustainability of “coexistence with nature".

The greatest feature of Japanese traditional culture is, without a doubt, the way they treat and think about nature, which is a result of their climate and natural features. Unlike the nature of the continent, which can sometimes seem to reject people, such as deserts and steep mountains with not a single blade of grass growing on them, Japan has no deserts (the Tottori Sand Dunes will disappear if people do not protect them), and many of its mountains are kind to people, as the phrase “mountain produce" indicates.

For the Japanese, nature may be violent and threatening at times, but it is fundamentally a motherly, gentle entity to be respected and never opposed. Not only the mountains and seas that give us happiness, but also every single plant and tree and everything created by nature is an affectionate and respectful attitude that has continued to flow beneath the surface of Japan's traditional culture, giving birth to its overwhelming individuality.

For this reason, nature has been skillfully incorporated into Japan's traditional culture, and the nature depicted in Japanese paintings, ceramics, and lacquerware exudes a gentle, familiar quality.

We would like people around the world, as well as Japanese people seeking Western brands, to know about and use as many of Japan's traditional crafts as possible, which are sustainable not only in the production process but also from use to disposal.

For example, there is a Japanese cleaning tool called a “palm broom”. If you buy one and start using it, you will feel the moisture that nature gives to your life. The sound of using the palm broom and the refreshing scent that tickles your nose will enrich your life.

Before long, you will start to feel bad for using a palm broom to dispose of industrial waste such as vinyl, and before you know it, you will feel that the amount of waste will decrease and your life will become more sustainable. Japanese traditional culture, and learning about it, has something deep that can save the earth from its crisis.